


A Good Theif

by partly



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-11
Updated: 2013-04-11
Packaged: 2017-12-08 05:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/757406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partly/pseuds/partly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parker was a thief.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Theif

Parker was a thief. She’d been a thief all her life. It wasn’t simply what she did, it was who she was. 

Parker _was_ a thief. Knowing that made life simple. If she needed something, she stole it. If she wanted something to do, there was always a job. If she was bored, she planned out a heist. Simple. Clear. 

Just the way she liked it. 

But now… What was she now?

Sure, she still did the things thieves do. She picked locks, broke into buildings, penetrated the impenetrable. She even took things that didn’t belong to her. 

But she didn’t keep them. She didn’t sell them for money. She didn’t trade them for favors. Was it stealing if she didn’t do any of those things? Then, if she didn’t actually _steal_ anything, was she still a thief? 

At first it had been hard, not keeping things for herself. It had been almost impossible not to pocket an item or two. Not to sneak way with jewels or money that had been laying there, hers for the taking. Those first jobs they’d done had left her with a pit in her stomach and the ache of uncertainty and of incompleteness. 

Not right after the job. No. Right after the job there was an utter and unexpected delight in helping people, in the giving away of the things that she’d risked everything to get. The gratitude and joy of the people they’d helped overwhelmed her in a way that nothing else ever had. It left her light headed and giddy.

But those first few months, when she lay unsleeping and thinking about what she’d done, something sat, cold and heavy, against her heart. Sure, she’d still gotten money, but it was more like getting paid than stealing. It felt almost _honest_. 

She _liked_ that feeling. The feeling of acceptance, of belonging, of _making things right_. And she realized that the ache inside her didn’t come because she wasn’t stealing anymore, it came because she feared losing this new life. Losing this family that she’d fallen in with. Losing this glorious new feeling of being a good person.

But good people weren’t thieves. Good people weren’t grifters or hackers or hitters or masterminds. And that’s what they all were, weren’t they? That’s what they all did. That’s how they fit into the world and worked with each other. It’s why they were part of the Leverage Team. And yet the team did _good_ : helped people, stopped injustice, put bad guys in jail.

All things that good people did.

Was it possible to be a good person, to not steal and still be a thief?

Because if she wasn’t a thief, who was she?


End file.
